NASA’s Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA says its planet-hunting telescope has found 10 new planets outside our solar system that are likely the right size and temperature to potentially have life on them.

As the Kepler telescope finished its main mission, NASA announced Monday that it has seen a total of 49 planets in the Goldilocks zone for possible life. And it only looked in a tiny part of the galaxy.

Kepler scientist Mario Perez says that means that “we are probably not alone” because four years of data show how common Earth-like planets can be. Outside scientists agreed that this is a boost in the hope for life elsewhere.

NASA says several of the 10 new potentially habitable planets circle stars similar in size to our sun.